Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1887-06-03
NO. %.
THE EMPRESS AUGUSTA.
HER LOOKS AND CHARACTER1sTICs-A NOR
TAI AMONG MORTALs.

HER LOOKS AND CHARACTER1sTfCs-A NOR
TAI AMONG MoRTALs.
Berlin Letter to the New York Tribune.l
The Empress has aged considerably with
in the last few years. Indeed you would
call her venerable were it not for the fact
that she is fourteen years younger than her
husband, who is ninety. Still she contin
ues assiduously to repair by the aid of art
the irreparable ravages of time. 1t is this
which makes her appear upon occasions al
most hideous. Imagine face wrinkled
and pinched, topped by an enormous black
wig, the sunken cheeks glowing with un-
natural color, a pair of dark, lustreless
eyes staring into vacancy, the scrawny
neck, once the admiration and envy of the
court, now mass Of cords and snews, a
figure bent with age and infrmities, sup
ported by a stout walking stick, or leaning
upon the arm of an attendant-and you
have picture of the Empress, as she APP
pears in public or at court festivals. Upon
the occasion of the anniversary of the En-
perors birthday in March she was rolled
into the audience chamber seated upon a
chair and she remained in that position
throughout the proceedings, while the EN-
peror himself remained standing. Her car
riages are so constructed that the chair can
be rolled into them, and staircase was re
Gently built in the palace which will admit
Of her being conveyed to the upper floors
Of the building in the same easy manner.
Confirmed invalid though she be, she is as
exacting and punctlious in her demands
upon Others as regards court ceremonial
and etiquette, if she were a royalty of
yesterdays creation and feared her reign
might come to a sudden and abrupt end on
the morrow. Her toilet and personal adorn-
4
fifty years ago and, l fear, more So She
then had youth and beauty, of which not
trace remains today. Her pictures of the
period, which by the way she still contn-
ues to distribute with a lavish hand among
the loyal and devoted followers of her court,
show her to have been of commanding
presence with an intellectual cast of fea-
lures of the English type, and finely shap-
ed head, balanced with royal self possession
upon a magnificent pair of shoulders. You
could not obtain in Berlin today print,
photo or picture of the Empress of more re
cent date than say, twenty or twenty-five
years ago. The contrast would be too start
ling, were her present appearance cOmpar-
ed with what it was then And Sc the poor
old lady goes on deceving no one but her
self, still clinging to the memories of the
past still clutching at the outward trap
pings Oh royalty, SJlll "dEliB war upon
time with powder, wig and paint.
The relations between the Emperor and
the Empress have never been very cordial,
though of late they are said to be less strain
ed than they formerly were. What change
has taken place is due no doubt to the dis
ciplining hand of time and to the Emperors
uniform kindness of heart and forgiving
disposition. If people do not stop quarrel
ing at seventy-six and ninety, when will
| they stop! Even husband and wife must
learn wisdom by that time, if they never
did before So the Berliners have come to
the conclusion that their Emperor and his
royal spouse have made up" Outward APP
pearances tend to confirm this view. For
merly the arrival of the Emperor in Berlin
was the signal for the Empress to start for
Baden Baden or Coblentz on the Rhine.
Their ''incompatibility of temper" l be-
lieve, was based entirely upon diversity
of tastes. The stories which twenty years
ago connected the Emperors name with
certain adventures and made them the ba-
sis of conjugal unhappiness between the
pair never had any foundation